The Royals were successful with bids for Hope Akpan, Stephen Kelly, Daniel Carrico and Nick Blackman in the January transfer window but they failed in their attempt to re-sign the former Madejski hero, despite a hat-trick of offers.

"We tried to bring one more player in on deadline day that we'd been working on for some time and it would have been great to get Gylfi back to our club," McDermott said.

"I have to thank the owner Anton Zingarvich for the backing that he personally gave us for all the deals and in trying to get Sigurdsson over the line.

"At one point on deadline day we thought we were in with a real chance, we made three offers and Anton wanted Gylfi as a present for our supporters but it wasn't to be."